Gordon couldn't believe what was happening around him. Virgil and Scott both seemed rooted to the spot, one starting at Jasmine and the other their father. Kyrano had paused half way across the small room, his face unreadable. Gordon knew, as they all did, that Kyrano had a darker past than they realised but to hear him speak about the person he'd met before…

"Kyrano, the man" Gordon started nervously, "the man in the coffee shop, what happened to him?"

"He was taken by the army" Kyrano said, "we were later told that his computer held plans for the mass murder of several hundred people."

The reaction in the room was mixed. Scott and Jeff both looked appalled but Jasmine, she just looked confused.

"Vi ta'esh mur lukain" she said under her breath perhaps not even realising she'd spoken at all. Virgil looked at her sharply as she spoke, his own confusion clear as he took in her expression.

Gordon swallowed, keeping his attention solely on Kyrano, trying not to let on to what he'd heard.

"You said he was pleasant" Gordon said "that you'd spent time with him. Are you sure he was going to do what they said?"

"The evidence was released to the public. It was overwhelming" Kyrano said. From the corner of his eye Gordon saw Jasmine shake her head slightly, she looked desperately sad. "And there were other things, things you must have noticed Master Virgil."

Virgil almost jumped at his name.

"What?" he said, his voice no more than a whisper.

"Has she not seemed perfect to you? Or maybe I should say, perfect for you? Have there not also been discrepancies in what she has said?" At the lost look on Virgil's face Kyrano continued, "she will have made herself into whatever she thought would endear herself to you most. In my case, at that time in my life I had just lost my father. I needed a friend and the one I got understood exactly what I was going through. He said all the right things, he never pushed when I needed space but he was ready to talk whenever I was. But, at the same time, little things didn't add up. For example, sometimes he spoke of a sister but later he insisted he only had a brother."

As Kyrano was talking Gordon studied Jasmine's face. The sadness never left but, to his own horror, acceptance took its place. By the time Kyrano had finished talking there was only an impassive mask.

"You can't be serious Kyrano" Virgil said softly. "A man offers a friendly ear and that makes him a, a, one of those, because he made you feel better?"

"Virgil" their father said. "I know this is a lot to take in-"

"A lot to take in?"

"Mi cari no vo vena larsh" Jasmine said, deliberately breaking the atmosphere in the room. She then took off the communicator and threw it at Gordon. He caught it out of instinct and saw the message on the screen.

"She says the damage caused by the shock will take about three hours to fix. Afterwards she'll be able to speak English again."

"Kyrano please take her to the guest room" Jeff said indicating that his manservant should move. Kyrano took a step forwards and Jasmine reacted immediately. She took a half step back rebalancing herself but raised her arms as though warding Kyrano off. It was a move Gordon had seen before, in the ring, just before he'd had to move very quickly to avoid a double punch.

"I'll take her" he said getting in the way yet again. "I don't think she likes Kyrano much." Jasmine inclined an eyebrow at him, the motion suggesting she realised she'd been rumbled and appreciated the gesture. He motioned towards the door and she eyed it warily.

"It's turned off" Jeff said. Jasmine nodded to him once and made to leave but, clearly, she wasn't as recovered as she'd made out. She stumbled as she tried to walk, Virgil steadying her once again.

"I'll come with you" he said and, was it Gordon's imagination or did her face harden at the words?

"I don't think that's a good idea, son. You need to stay here."

"I'll be back soon." Virgil didn't look back as he ushered Jasmine out the door.

"Virgil, stay here!" Jeff was ignored. "Virgil!"

"Dad let him go" Scott said seeming to finally snap himself out of it.

"I will go as well" Kyrano said "and keep Master Virgil from harm."

"You stay there, don't you think you've done enough!" Virgil turned back pointing an accusing finger. "Besides, Jasmine isn't going to hurt us. Are you?"

Jasmine was clearly not expecting to be addressed directly but shook her head none the less.

"Second floor, Gordon" Jeff said. "Third room on the left."

Gordon nodded and they moved to leave again. Gordon made sure he followed close behind, pulling the door firmly closed as he heard Scott round on their father. As soon as the door shut Virgil's hand moved to the collar but Jasmine batted him away using the antique furniture to put some distance between them. All the time she was muttering to herself.

Gordon was torn. If she were human, he'd say she looked desperate. Her eyes were wide and her breathing too fast. Something he'd seen on many rescue victims as they tried to process exactly what was happening around them. But the awful electronic burr in her voice demanded he face the reality that she was not.

She limped from the sideboard to the old armchair. Her right leg apparently refusing to take her weight properly. She used the back of the chair to help her stand, not ceasing the muttering.

"Jasmine, please" Virgil implored, "I don't understand you. Let me help you."

She laughed, a harsh noise in this new voice that made Gordon cringe. There was no humour there. She all but shouted something at Virgil then, something Gordon tried desperately to close his ears to. She then took a steadying breath.

"Don't you think you've done enough?" she said in her regular voice. "Finally" she threw one hand up in a 'typical' gesture. "I was so damned stupid" she said her voice full of betrayal. "Welfare check? Really? I mean… We are trained for infiltration and manipulation but I never got it, I was never that good at it but you" she gestured angrily at Gordon's brother. "You're a fucking master class. I bought it, by the way, in case you wanted to know for your next debrief or whatever. I bought the whole lot and what do I get? I end up right back where I started."

Virgil looked like he'd been slapped but Gordon didn't have a chance to think on it further before he found himself pinned by the force of her anger.

"How did you even get on to me, anyway? International Rescue was nothing to me. Some blokes on tv and then a really odd phrase from one of the guys who interrupted my planned mugging. I didn't go looking for you, I didn't even think about it again until you showed up."

"Wait, planned mugging?" Gordon said.

"Yes, planned" she said as though explaining to a child. "I'm a biomechanoid. Four men who like to duff up tourists and old ladies are not a challenge even if I am running on half power."

"Half power?" Virgil asked.

"Not important" she shrugged it off. "What is important is that I should not have been on your radar and I was. Why? I thought your whole raison d'etre was saving people from disaster. How does one girl living in London's underground scene pull the attention of International Rescue?"

"We found some footage" Gordon said trying to project calmness into his voice. "Scott and Virgil recognised you from it. You were" he faltered unsure how she would react "you were in a cage, and so were many more people" he finished carefully. She didn't react so Gordon flicked a glace to Virgil unsure how to proceed, but Virgil wasn't looking at him. "It took us a while to find you, all we had to go on was the uh encounter in London and the footage from Johannesburg."

"Johannesburg" she echoed before turning back to Virgil. "Even that?" she said, her voice heavy with emotion. "Nothing was real at all was it? You just happened to show me all those places and really you only wanted to check and see if I recognised anything."

"I.." But Virgil seemed unable to continue.

"So what?" She visibly pulled herself back together. "Thunderbird Five sends the footage to the DGF and they tell you it was a biomech facility and, by the way, they shot everyone in it and now they need you to gather proof that… no that doesn't make sense." She paused, considered and tried again. "They needed you to catch me for them?" she guessed. "Why else would I be here?" She ran a hand across her eyes taking away moisture that Gordon hadn't noticed until that point. To his shame he realised she was trying not to cry. Virgil moved, his instinct to care overriding anything else. He didn't get two steps before her head sprang up.

"What the hell did you do to me?" She accused.

"What?" Virgil faltered.

"Master Tracy" she said meaning Jeff. Both brothers flinched at the term, there wasn't the fondness in the way that Kyrano used it. This was a term of ownership, "Master Tracy said something about biomechs avoiding a blood screening. I sure as hell didn't give you any of my blood. Did you take it whilst I was asleep? What else did you do?"

"Nothing! No, I would never" Virgil said desperately. Gordon felt a surge of panic. She'd gone from despair to righteous indignation in moments. Knowing from experience what she was capable of, knowing what biomechanoids were capable of, Gordon once again threw himself into the middle of things, this time to try and draw focus from his brother.

"Virgil wouldn't, that's not who he is."

"Then how?" She demanded.

"The bandages" Virgil said, his voice betraying his guilt over it. His eyes sprang open at her scoff.

"Do you really think I'm stupid enough to leave loose nanotech around on some soiled bandages where anyone could pick them up?" she said derisively. At their bewildered expressions she carried on. "I control them, they don't control me and they're all but useless sitting in the bin. They don't leave my system unless I tell them to. They do what I tell them, fix what I tell them."

"That's not what we've been led to believe" Gordon said carefully.

"Yeah well, from what I can tell, what most people believe about biomech's is just propaganda." She deflated a little and once again Virgil moved, just an outstretched arm, an unconscious movement to catch her as she swayed slightly. She managed to make it look almost as though she'd sat on the arm of the couch on purpose. The angles were a little wrong and the movements a little too jerky but she managed it. To Gordon's relief, Virgil didn't say anything, he just quietly pulled his arm back.

"Why don't you eat regularly?" Virgil asked instead. Two sets of eyes looked at him confusedly. "You're a biomechnoid making money from fighting. You should win every time. Hell, if you wanted something, I don't think there's many who could stop you. But you said you're running on half power. It's because you don't eat, or drink properly, isn't it? Why? Do you even have somewhere safe to sleep?"

"Do you really think I need somewhere safe to sleep?"

"Yes" Virgil said with so much more hidden in the word than Gordon could decipher.

A look passed between them, long and heavy, before Jasmine answered.

"I don't need it like they do" she said. "It's a basic rule of four for biomechs, four days without food or sleep before it starts to become a problem. Starts" she emphasised. "In training I could push it nearly double that. The people I met, after we, I" she corrected "first got out? They can't do that. Do you know how a kid makes money on the street if they haven't got any? Haven't got anywhere to go?" Her gaze searched both oof them until she was sure they understood what she was implying. "I can't let a fourteen-year-old go through that. That kind of thing does actual damage to a person" she said looking disgusted. "I don't need somewhere safe to sleep so surely it's better if anything I won pays for some of the kids to get a night in a shelter, right? I mean, what was I doing it all for anyway? I'm not entitled to anything. The world isn't made for me. Why not help them?"

It wasn't said with any kind of bitterness or sadness. Gordon realised to her it was simple fact, something to be acknowledged in the same way gravity was. But Gordon had a brother who defied gravity daily and took the consequences of doing so on the chin.

"Well," he broke the heavy silence. "First things first. That is coming off." He pointed to the collar but as soon as he moved forward Jasmine sprang to her feet.

"No!" she said holding a hand in front of her.

"Jasmine, you don't deserve to wear it" Virgil said and Gordon could swear that just for a second she smiled for him.

"You" she looked between the two brothers, "neither of you. You don't know how this works, do you?" she said indicating the collar.

They didn't.

"You can't just take it off. I know it looks like it should unclip but unless it's in contact with the activator it delivers one hell of a shock. Last time I was out for 10 hours and barely functional when I woke up."

Virgil blanched. "Then we'll get it from father."

It took Gordon a moment to realise that the activator was the small device Jeff had held.

"No!" she said again and sung round the armchair. She caught Virgil by the upper arms and he stilled. "He's your father" she said eyes searching his face. "He's doing this to protect you. When the GDF get here they will take anyone who they think is associated with me."

"You expect me to just leave you in that thing?" Virgil looked disgusted by the idea. Gordon didn't feel any better about it.

"Yes."

"I can't do that. It's wrong."

"No, it isn't."

"Jasmine-"

"Isn't real" she said gently, kindly, her hands squeezing to try and soften the blow. "Thunderbird Five made her up and I so desperately wanted to be real that I went along with it, but I shouldn't have. This" she tucked a thumb under the collar "is all I ever was. I know that." She stepped away and any trace of emotion, of vulnerability or care washed from her face. "I need you to go."

"What?"

"I can be this again. It's what I was created for. But it will be so much harder with you here" she said quietly, for only Virgil to hear. She turned to Gordon.

"You're supposed to be taking me to a secure room" she said.

"Er, yeah, right" Gordon said trying to pull himself together after what he'd just seen. As Jasmine had visibly put her walls back in place Virgil seemed ready to shatter. Not knowing what else to do Gordon led her from the room leaving Virgil where he stood. At the last moment she turned back.

"Go talk to your father, Virgil. He'll explain things. He's right and its time we both stopped fighting it."

Gordon had never felt more wrong as he led her away.